MEMORANDUM OPINION AND FINAL JUDGMENT
Before RONEY, Circuit Judge, and SCOTT and TJOFLAT, District Judges.
TJOFLAT, District Judge:
During the 1970 session the Florida Legislature passed the “Oil Spill Prevention and Pollution Control Act”
(hereinafter called the “Florida Act”) in an attempt to prevent pollution by the shipping industry of waters within the territorial jurisdiction of the State of Florida. The Act imposes unlimited liability without fault upon virtually any vessel which discharges oil or any other pollutant while destined for or leaving any Florida port.
Onshore and offshore
terminal facilities are subject to the same liability.
The Act requires every owner or operator of a vessel using a Florida port or a terminal facility to pay whatever cleanup costs or damages may result from the discharge of pollutants
and to maintain satisfactory evidence of financial responsibility to satisfy such liability.
The Department of Natural Resources is empowered to
require any vessel transporting a pollutant in state waters to be equipped with specified containment gear and a crew trained in its use.
Prior to entering a Florida port, every vessel is subject to inspection by the port manager to determine the presence of the required containment gear and the seaworthiness of the ship.
He is required to notify all other ports in the state of any vessel refused entry to his port.
Plaintiffs and intervenors include merchant shippers whose vessels use Florida ports in the course of transporting goods in foreign and interstate commerce; world shipping associations who insure three-fourths of the ocean-going tonnage against, among other things, liability for oil spillage; a substantial portion of the barge and towing industry operating along the Florida coast; and owners of oil terminal facilities located in Florida ports. They have challenged the validity of the Florida Act on several federal constitutional grounds. Plaintiffs’ initial contention is that Florida has sought to legislate substantive maritime law which, under the United States Constitution, is exclusively within the federal domain. Secondly,
they contend that the Act violates the Commerce Clause, since it seeks to regulate foreign and interstate commerce. Certain provisions of the Act are under piecemeal attack on Fourteenth Amendment due process and equal protection grounds. The resolution of the first of these contentions dictates the decision in this case, and the others will not be discussed.
The maritime law of the United States has evolved under Article 3, Section 2, of the Constitution which extends the judicial power of the United States “to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction.” In a territorial sense that jurisdiction covers all waters navigable in interstate or foreign commerce, including state waters.
Maritime law governs virtually every facet of the shipping industry from the design and construction of vessels to the regulation of their day to day operations and the transactions in which they engage. It comprises traditional admiralty rules and concepts found initially in the European authorities. These rules and concepts have been augmented from time to time by the federal judiciary to accommodate needs distinctive to this nation. Further changes in the corpus of maritime law have been effected by a variety of congressional enactments and administrative regulations.
One of these congressional enactments is the Water Quality Improvement Act of 1970
(hereinafter called “W.Q.I.A.”) which became law a few months prior to the effective date of the Florida Act. W.Q. I. A. provides plaintiffs with tangible evidence that the Florida Act is an unconstitutional intrusion into the federal maritime domain.
The W.Q.I.A. reinforces the national anti-water pollution policy. In this act Congress declared that there should be no discharge of oil into or upon the navigable waters and shorelines of the United States.
The owner or operator of a vessel or an onshore or offshore facility is subject to limited liability without fault for the costs expended by the government in cleaning up an oil spill.
Where the spillage results from willful negligence or misconduct, however, liability for such costs can be unlimited.
Evidence of financial responsibility sufficient to cover its potential liability must be given by any vessel of 300 gross tons or more that uses the navigable waters of the United States.
Additionally, the President is authorized to issue regulations requiring, among other things, that vessels maintain oil spill prevention equipment and be subject to boarding for inspection purposes at any time.
In adopting W.Q.I.A. Congress anticipated that all hazardous substances, in addition to oil, capable of polluting navi
gable waters would be subject to similar legislative treatment.
W.Q.I.A. required the President to promulgate regulations defining such hazardous substances and establishing methods and means for their removal.
He was also required to report to Congress, by November 1, 1970, on the desirability of enacting legislation to establish liability for the cost of removing hazardous substances discharged from vessels and onshore and offshore facilities.
That the Florida Act constitutes unlawful intrusion into the exclusive federal admiralty domain is apparent when one observes the extent to which that act would change substantive maritime law. The most obvious changes would be in the liability now imposed by W.Q. I.A. and maritime rules on shippers and the operators of onshore and offshore facilities.
While both W.Q.I.A. and the Florida Act subject vessels and onshore and offshore facilities to strict liability for cleanup costs, the latter imposes a far greater measure of responsibility. For example, W.Q.I.A. would excuse a shipper who demonstrates that the oil spill was caused by act of God, an act of war, or the act or omission of a third party.
The Florida Act recognizes none of these defenses to a claim by the state for cleanup costs.
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MEMORANDUM OPINION AND FINAL JUDGMENT
Before RONEY, Circuit Judge, and SCOTT and TJOFLAT, District Judges.
TJOFLAT, District Judge:
During the 1970 session the Florida Legislature passed the “Oil Spill Prevention and Pollution Control Act”
(hereinafter called the “Florida Act”) in an attempt to prevent pollution by the shipping industry of waters within the territorial jurisdiction of the State of Florida. The Act imposes unlimited liability without fault upon virtually any vessel which discharges oil or any other pollutant while destined for or leaving any Florida port.
Onshore and offshore
terminal facilities are subject to the same liability.
The Act requires every owner or operator of a vessel using a Florida port or a terminal facility to pay whatever cleanup costs or damages may result from the discharge of pollutants
and to maintain satisfactory evidence of financial responsibility to satisfy such liability.
The Department of Natural Resources is empowered to
require any vessel transporting a pollutant in state waters to be equipped with specified containment gear and a crew trained in its use.
Prior to entering a Florida port, every vessel is subject to inspection by the port manager to determine the presence of the required containment gear and the seaworthiness of the ship.
He is required to notify all other ports in the state of any vessel refused entry to his port.
Plaintiffs and intervenors include merchant shippers whose vessels use Florida ports in the course of transporting goods in foreign and interstate commerce; world shipping associations who insure three-fourths of the ocean-going tonnage against, among other things, liability for oil spillage; a substantial portion of the barge and towing industry operating along the Florida coast; and owners of oil terminal facilities located in Florida ports. They have challenged the validity of the Florida Act on several federal constitutional grounds. Plaintiffs’ initial contention is that Florida has sought to legislate substantive maritime law which, under the United States Constitution, is exclusively within the federal domain. Secondly,
they contend that the Act violates the Commerce Clause, since it seeks to regulate foreign and interstate commerce. Certain provisions of the Act are under piecemeal attack on Fourteenth Amendment due process and equal protection grounds. The resolution of the first of these contentions dictates the decision in this case, and the others will not be discussed.
The maritime law of the United States has evolved under Article 3, Section 2, of the Constitution which extends the judicial power of the United States “to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction.” In a territorial sense that jurisdiction covers all waters navigable in interstate or foreign commerce, including state waters.
Maritime law governs virtually every facet of the shipping industry from the design and construction of vessels to the regulation of their day to day operations and the transactions in which they engage. It comprises traditional admiralty rules and concepts found initially in the European authorities. These rules and concepts have been augmented from time to time by the federal judiciary to accommodate needs distinctive to this nation. Further changes in the corpus of maritime law have been effected by a variety of congressional enactments and administrative regulations.
One of these congressional enactments is the Water Quality Improvement Act of 1970
(hereinafter called “W.Q.I.A.”) which became law a few months prior to the effective date of the Florida Act. W.Q. I. A. provides plaintiffs with tangible evidence that the Florida Act is an unconstitutional intrusion into the federal maritime domain.
The W.Q.I.A. reinforces the national anti-water pollution policy. In this act Congress declared that there should be no discharge of oil into or upon the navigable waters and shorelines of the United States.
The owner or operator of a vessel or an onshore or offshore facility is subject to limited liability without fault for the costs expended by the government in cleaning up an oil spill.
Where the spillage results from willful negligence or misconduct, however, liability for such costs can be unlimited.
Evidence of financial responsibility sufficient to cover its potential liability must be given by any vessel of 300 gross tons or more that uses the navigable waters of the United States.
Additionally, the President is authorized to issue regulations requiring, among other things, that vessels maintain oil spill prevention equipment and be subject to boarding for inspection purposes at any time.
In adopting W.Q.I.A. Congress anticipated that all hazardous substances, in addition to oil, capable of polluting navi
gable waters would be subject to similar legislative treatment.
W.Q.I.A. required the President to promulgate regulations defining such hazardous substances and establishing methods and means for their removal.
He was also required to report to Congress, by November 1, 1970, on the desirability of enacting legislation to establish liability for the cost of removing hazardous substances discharged from vessels and onshore and offshore facilities.
That the Florida Act constitutes unlawful intrusion into the exclusive federal admiralty domain is apparent when one observes the extent to which that act would change substantive maritime law. The most obvious changes would be in the liability now imposed by W.Q. I.A. and maritime rules on shippers and the operators of onshore and offshore facilities.
While both W.Q.I.A. and the Florida Act subject vessels and onshore and offshore facilities to strict liability for cleanup costs, the latter imposes a far greater measure of responsibility. For example, W.Q.I.A. would excuse a shipper who demonstrates that the oil spill was caused by act of God, an act of war, or the act or omission of a third party.
The Florida Act recognizes none of these defenses to a claim by the state for cleanup costs. The state is entitled to judgment simply by pleading and proving “the fact of the prohibited discharge.”
Moreover, the amount of the recovery would be unlimited; whereas W.Q.I.A. would place a limit on exposure, as we have previously noted.
There is perhaps an even greater contrast between maritime law and the Florida Act in compensating state or private interests for property damage, as distinguished from cleanup costs.' W.Q.I.A. creates responsibility for cleanup costs only and leaves undisturbed the remedies available under maritime law* for private injury caused by oil spillage or other pollution. The federal courts have long considered oil pollution as a maritime tort for which damages may be awarded.
Compensation is recoverable for injury to property and allowances have even been made for consequential damages. In In re New Jersey Barging Corp.,
an oil spill case, the court approved the following language from the Commissioner’s report:
In the light of the * * * authorities, it would seem to the Commissioner that he is authorized, and in fact required, to make award of compensation for such annoyance, inconvenience and discomfort suffered by particular claimants to the extent of and in an amount commensurate with the annoyance and discomfort proven.
The recovery of damages in such cases is predicated on proof of negligence or unseaworthiness. The owner of a seaworthy vessel would not be liable, for example, if he encountered an extraordinary peril which resulted in a non-deliberate and non-negligent pollution of the shoreline. Even if fault were established, the vessel owner’s financial responsibility for property damage would be limited to the value of the vessel at the end of the voyage, plus the “freight then pending,” unless the damage was caused with the owner’s “privity or knowledge.”
Under the Florida Act, however, liability without fault is the foundation for “damage incurred by the state and for damage resulting from injury to others,” just as it is in the case of cleanup costs. By substituting absolute liability for proof of negligence or unseaworthiness as a condition to unlimited recovery, the Florida Act, if valid, would materially change the substantive maritime law governing the disposition of claims arising from the pollution of coastal waters.
It is well settled that state legislation is invalid where it is in contravention with general admiralty rules or congressional enactments in the maritime field. In the landmark
Jensen
case,
the Supreme Court, in holding that the New York State Workmen’s Compensation Statute could not constitutionally be applied where an accidental death occurred on a vessel afloat in navigable waters within New York’s boundaries, said:
And plainly, we think, no such legislation is valid if it contravenes the essential purpose expressed by act of Congress or works material prejudice to the characteristic features of the general maritime law, or interferes with the proper harmony and uniformity of that law in its international and interstate relations. This limitation, at the least, is essential to the effective operation of the fundamental purposes for which such law was incorporated into our national laws by the Constitution itself.
If New York can subject foreign ships coming into her ports to such obligations as those imposed by her Compensation Statute, other States may do likewise. The necessary consequence would be destruction of the very uniformity in respect to mari-j time matters which the Constitution was designed to establish; and freedom of navigation between the states and with foreign countries would be seriously hampered and impeded. * * * The legislature exceeded its authority in attempting to extend the statute under consideration to conditions like those here disclosed. So applied, it conflicts with the Constitution and to that extent is invalid.
The Florida Act here constitutes a far greater intrusion into the federal maritime domain than the New York statute in the
Jensen
case. If applied to the plaintiffs and intervenors in this case, the Florida Act would effect — in the words of
Jensen
— the “destruction of the very uniformity in respect to maritime matters which the Constitution was designed to establish; and freedom of navigation between the states and with foreign_eountries would be seriously Hampered and impeded.”
This is not a situation in which a state legislature has sought to act in an area of purely local concern and its enactment is no real encroachment on federal interests. Rather, this is a case where the State purports to impose upon shipping and related industries duties which under the federal law they do not bear. It can hardly be said that Florida is not seeking to regulate conduct in the federal maritime jurisdiction. We need not belabor the point that to permit the states severally to regulate these industries as Florida seeks to do would sound the death knell to the principle of uniformity.
Defendants argue that, to the extent the Florida Act goes beyond W. Q.I.A., it fills a “void” in the maritime law and is justifiable under the “gap,,theory.”
This theory presupposes that maritime law is an incomplete system,
with numerous gaps that can be filled by state statutes. This is to say, if the maritime law affords no remedy, the states may provide one. The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Moragne v. States Marine Lines, Inc.
clearly puts such a theory to rest.
In that case the Court had before it the question of the applicability of the Florida Wrongful Death Statute
to a claim arising out of the death of a longshoreman killed while working aboard a vessel in navigable waters within the State of Florida. Neither the general maritime law nor Congressional enactment provided a remedy in the situation. The District Court and the Court of Appeals, citing The Tungus v. Skovgaard,
held that the state statute should be invoked to provide the remedy as well as the basis for recovery, that is, negligence.
Under maritime law, however, States Marine Lines owed plaintiff’s decedent the duty to provide a seaworthy vessel in addition to the duty to exercise due care. Plaintiff therefore argued that an action was maintainable for a breach of either duty.
The Supreme Court rejected the notion that the absence of a federal statute or a maritime rule on the subject compelled the conclusion that state law must govern. It held that admiralty was fully capable of fashioning a remedy for the breach of substantive duties imposed by general maritime law and thus directed the district court to shape the remedy on remand. At the same time the Court observed that the Florida law of negligence has no place in the maritime field. The decision clearly reinforced the policy of uniformity and is an indication that admiralty cannot tolerate the inconsistency inherent in accommodating state remedial statutes to exclusively maritime substantive concepts.
Another argument advanced by defendants is that the Florida Act is valid under the following provision of W.Q.I.A.:
Nothing in this section shall be construed as preempting any State or political subdivision thereof from imposing any requirement or liability with respect to the discharge of oil into any waters within such State. 33 U. S.C. § 1161(o) (2).
It has long been recognized that Congress is powerless to confer on the states authority to legislate within the admiralty jurisdiction [Knickerbocker Ice Company v. Stewart, 253 U.S. 149, 40 S.Ct. 438, 64 L.Ed. 834 (1920);
The Lottawanna, 21 Wall. (88 U.S.) 558, 22 L.Ed.2d 654 (1875); The Steamer St. Lawrence, 1 Black 522, 66 U.S. 522, 17 L.Ed. 180 (1862)] and we cannot presume that W.Q.I.A. was an attempt to do so. There is nothing in the language of the act which purports to grant any such legislative authority to the states. The statement that Congress did not intend to preclude state imposed liability for oil pollution simply means that the states are free to enforce pollution control measures that are within their constitutional prerogative.
For the foregoing reasons we conclude that the Florida Act in ques
tion cannot constitutionally be applied to the plaintiffs and intervenors and to the activities in which they engage. The question thus arises as to whether the Act is severable. Although it contains a severability clause,
such a provision is by no means binding on a court empowered to determine the constitutionality of a statute. The rule was explained by the Supreme Court in Carter v. Carter Coal Co.:
Whether the provisions of a statute are so interwoven that one being held invalid the others must fall, presents a question of a statutory construction and of legislative intent, to the determination of which the statutory provision becomes an aid. “But it is an aid merely; not an inexorable command.” Dorchy v. Kansas, 264 U.S. 286, 290, 44 S.Ct. 323, 325, 68 L.Ed. 686. The presumption in favor of separability does not authorize the court to give the statute “an effect altogether different from that sought by the measure viewed as a whole.” Railroad Retirement Bd. v. Alton R. Co., 295 U.S. 330, 362, 55 S.Ct. 758, 79 L. Ed. 1468.
The statutory aid to construction in no way alters the rule that in order to hold one part of a statute unconstitutional and uphold another part as separable, they must not be mutually dependent upon one another.
When a federal court is called upon to rule on the constitutionality of a state statute containing a severability clause, the court will look to the decisions of the state court on the effect of such a clause.
In Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction
the Supreme Court of Florida made the following pronouncement on the question of severability:
The rule is well established that the unconstitutionality of a portion of a statute will not necessarily condemn the entire act. When a part of a statute is declared unconstitutional the remainder of the act will be permitted to stand provided: (1) the unconstitutional provisions can be separated from the remaining valid provisions, (2) the legislative purpose expressed in the valid provisions can be accomplished independently of those which are void, (3) the good and the bad features are not so inseparable in substance that it can be said that the Legislature would have passed the one without the other and, (4) an act complete in itself remains after the invalid provisions are stricken.
In the Florida Act there are no provisions which, though standing by themselves might be considered unobjectionable, are not so interwoven in purpose and scheme with the invalid provisions of the Act as to permit the operation of the severability clause. The announced intent of the Florida Legislature was to “deal with the hazards and threats of danger and damage posed by . transfer of pollutants between vessels, between onshore facilities and vessels, and between offshore facilities and vessels within the jurisdiction of the state and state waters. . . . ”
Each provision of this statute was enacted to realize this intent and each would affect the industries in which plaintiffs and intervenors engage. The provisions that do not directly frustrate the federal maritime law are so few that, considered together, they would not comprise a coherent legislative scheme. Accordingly, the Act in its entirety must fall.
In consideration of the foregoing, it is Ordered:
1. Chapter 70-244, Laws of Florida, as amended in Chapter 376, Florida Statutes Annotated, is hereby declared
to be in violation of Article III, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Constitution of the United States and is therefore null and void and without effect.
2. The temporary restraining order entered by Judge Charles R. Scott on March 19, 1971, enjoining the enforcement of said chapter and any regulations promulgated thereunder is hereby made permanent; provided that nothing in this final judgment shall be construed to prohibit the defendants from continuing to pay salaries of current employees out of the Coastal Protection Trust Fund.
3. This memorandum opinion and final judgment shall constitute the final judgment of this Court as to all issues presented in this action.